Since I can eat whatever I want with my Trucker diet, We decided to splurge and hit the town for some Thai food. Theres a new place in Kennewick washington that has just opened called the Thai Elephant. Boy am I glad we did, in my opinion they have the best Thai Soup (Thom Kha Khai) in Eastern Washington. Thai Elephant also has an appetizer called Meing Kham. I've never tried a dish quite like it. Think of a Tortilla made out of leaves. There are small bowls with bits of jellied pepper,lime, dried baby salted shrimp,fresh ginger, onions and coconut. You choose your condiments then place them on your leaf and roll it up like a tortilla. It's light and refreshing with a flavor that makes your tongue feel like a labrador retriever that just had a bath, refreshed, peppy and ready to go.  We started out the meal with two delicious Thai Iced Tea's. If you click the Photo's they'll get larger.
 Meing Kham was an excellent choice for an Appetizer at Thai Elephant, and only cost 8.95 it really got us raring for the next course.
 Heres my leaf loaded with condiments ready to be rolled into an elvish tortilla. The perfect Thai Appetizer when you want to feel light and healthy.
 Now, drumroll please, my favorite. Thai Soup called Thom Kha Khai, it's made with lime,coconut,lemon grass, ginger and a blend of secret spices. In my opinion the best Thai Soup (maybe the best Thai food period) in Tri Cities Wa. It is found at the Thai Elephant in Kennewick Wa.
 This dish is the Eggplant Lovers (number 45 on the menu) it cost 9.95 and was a delicious main course.
 They even have an Elephant that greets you when you walk through the door.
The Thai Elephant is located at 6030 W Clearwater Ave in Kennewick wa. They are open Sunday through Thursday 11 to 9 P.M. and Friday and Saturday 11 to 10. They also have a lunch buffet which I saw on their billboard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. monday through friday. Give them a call at 509-396-9152 for take out or reservations.
I let my baby chickens out of the house to roam around the house. They love eating bugs out of Tweets flower bed. Then I went inside for a little nap. Something woke me from a dead sleep, a sense of dread, a distant call, a fathers instinct. WTF!! I threw on some sweats foregoing the shoes ignoring the goatheads that pierced my feet. No chickens anywhere. I walked around to the south side of the house. Huddled in the Iris's was Ary, Goldy, and Gizmo, completely comatose with fear, no sign of runt. I picked up the three and carried them to the Coop. Then went on a frantic search for Runt. She was nowhere to be found. I looked for signs of a struggle, only a single fuzzy down feather cought in a branch of the lantern tree. I called Tweet at work, "Runt is gone! I dont know what happened." We have a fence around our yard but my frantic mind was racing, there was a bit of space under the gate that a dog could squeez under. There had been a kid with a blue punk rock haircut walking by staring at me. I had nodded at him noticed he didn't nod back. Rage inside me, I started taking mental notes. All the neighbors dogs were suspect, didn't remember seeing any cats. A Hawk? That punker kid? I fantasized about catching something in the act of stealing runt, My fist the crunching of bone, my boot catching the thief in the ass. anything to assuage this anger. For days I stewed, angry, feeling like I had betrayed Runt with my ill advised nap. Finally, a week later, I let my three remaining chickens out of the coop for a bug expedition while I went inside to mix thier food with Nancies yogurt that I bought special for them. I walked outside. There, circling low, was a hawk, the culprit, Back for a snack. I found Ary, Gizmo and Goldie had learned from this past encounter and had hidden themselves in a thorny shrub by the shed.
In my minds eye I had already walked out of my house a thousand times, catching the perp in the act of grabbing Runt, grabbing him in my vengefull hands ignoring its beak,fists, or fangs as they plunged into my flesh even relishing it, as I began my act of destroying the creature that had dared to defile the sanctity of our space and taken Runt from me. I called Tweet at work. " It was a hawk." Silence..."Well at least now you know." Although I'm a person that loves the wild things of this world, and don't care for the hunting of wolves, raptors or anything endangered. I have to confess this experience has allowed me to empathize with the farmers and shepherds of the world that had felt the need to go forth to avenge the loss of thier flock.
The one thing that gave me pause in my self righteous anger is, if I had walked out of the house and it had been a Bald Eagle, what would I have done? The answer. Though I cant be one hundred percent sure...could have been to run back inside for my camera.
I'm writing a fictional novel about William "Spud" Magruder a man who is seeking the meaning of life and trying to have some fun along the way. One afternoon Spud finds himself driving his eighteen wheeler into Santa Barbara and decides to stop in for a visit to one of the favorite bars from his youth, The Wildcat Tavern. But before Spud can get to the Wildcat he has a freak accident and recieves an almost lethal dose of pheromones. After much soul searching Spud decides to stop in at the Wildcat anyway. While at the Wildcat, Spud meets a mysterious lady with a gold tooth, a bouncer as big as a tree, and is forced into a life or death encounter with a woman that drawls like a chicken. They say everyone's got a novel running round their brain so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm putting a link here so my readers can check out a couple chapters. Thanks, Burnie Click here ---> The Adventures of Spud Magruder.
So says my friend Urk, paraphrasing a beatles song.
Our chickens have enhanced the quality of life for us a lot and haven't laid a single egg. Getting up in the morning to feed and water the gal's is a great way to start out the day and they are so funny to watch. As soon as they see me heading toward thier little coop they start to call out like an anxious bunch of teen agers. I open the door and they're off like a shot, chasing eachother around the coop in joyous freedom a couple times, then out to the garden that lies still fallow to scratch for bugs. When I have the food bowl in hand, Goldie spots me first, and they make a flapping sprint for me to see what treat I've brought from the kitchen. Their favorite so far, is left over sweet potatoes. I know I talk about different nutrients being good for depression, but to be honest one of the best mood enhancers I've found is just hangin' out with my chickens.  This movable coop is perfect for our small yard and keeps the Gal's safe when were out and about.
 My nephew Taigan and Goldie.
About a month ago I was in a lot of pain. My feet constantly were burning and tingling it felt like there was a red hot needle being jabbed into them constantly I know I blogged about getting rid of gout by doing a cherry juice fast but this was a completely different kind of pain. I tried asprin as well as ibuproffen and they didn't help. My feet hurt worst when I was driving and at night after I took my shoes off for bed, the pain was so unbearable that I couldn't sleep. My wife Terrie would rub lavender oil on them at night and this would lessen the pain quite a bit but the problem persisted. I couldn't understand why I had this neurapathy in my feet. I take a good multi vitamin and also Folate, vitamin D-3, Calcium and eat healthy also. I've even lost sixty pounds using my trucker diet. So why am I having this problem now? One night I was taking my multi vitamins when I noticed the bottle of Chromium Picolinate that I had bought a while back. I had stopped taking it when I bought my "Life Force brand Multi Vitamins which have 100 mcg's of chromium in them already. I decided to take a 400 mcg pill before bed anyway. Within an hour the tingling pain in my foot had lessened noticeably. I wasn't sure if this was just a fluke or me imagining things. I started taking the 400 mcg's of chromium picolinate at night before bed and it seemed to help. Within an hour of taking the pill the burning tingling in my feet would subside from unbearable to just noticeable. I decided to do some research on Chromium as a supplement. I haven't been able to find anything on Chromium as a way to stop pain in the feet, but it turns out Chromium is excellent for helping regulate blood sugar and there have been studies done with chromium supplements showing they help with atypical depression. Atypical depression is the most common form of depression some of the symptoms are craving carbohydrates, wanting to sleep all the time and high sensitivity to rejection. People that have atypical depression are really sensitive to external things effecting thier mood. ie. if something bad happens even if it's reletively minor (maybe one of your stocks is down?) it could seem the sky is falling. Conversly if something good happens (all three of the traffic lights on your way to work were green?) a person with atypical depression may feel like they just won the lottery. Here is a link to one of many articles on chromium being used to treat atypical depression. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200310/mineral-mental-energy Keep in mind that Chromium could have negative side effects and there needs to be more studies done on its safety, but for now the benefits outway the risks for me. For the last couple weeks I've been taking 500 mcg's of "Now" brand Tri Chromium with cinnamon twice a day and have noticed that I feel better in general and my feet dont hurt nearly as bad. (I also noticed that when I stopped taking the chromium the tingling and burning in my feet started to get worse again.) So if you have neurapathy in your feet and are diabetic or think you are suffering from atypical depression you may want to talk to your doctor about taking chromium. You can get a good chromium supplement at most health food stores.  I use Now brand Tri- Chromium, it has three different forms of chromium including chromium picolinate as well as 250 mg's of cinnamon which has also been shown to help regulate blood sugar.
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We decided to raise some chickens. The reason for this is we grow a little garden and plan on letting the chickens help out with fertilizer and killing bugs. happy chickens make healthier eggs. It's also difficult to find free pastured, organic, soy free eggs. Most organic feeds have soy which is high in omega 6 since the americans diet is top heavy with omega 6 fatty acids we are trying to make a concious effort to increase our omega 3 intake. Another benefit to raising chickens is the little guys or I should say (gals) are so darn cute.  "The Boss", this little Rhode Island Red chicken has (so far) established herself as the Boss of the little flock of five we have living in a cardboard box in the living room.
(Update on "The Boss" Chicken) Turns out the "Boss" is a rooster. It's hard to tell when they're chicks lol.
 Naptime.
Is Hauling Cars the best trucking job for your health? I know I think it is or at least ranks pretty high up there. The main health benefit of Car Hauling is you get lots of exercise (at least compared to most trucking jobs). Car Haulers load and unload the trucks themselves and the job requires quite a bit of walking! Imagine Acres and acres of cars and you have to locate each one and then load it on your truck. Then you get to chain or strap each car onto the truck which involves a lot of climbing around and winching on tie down bars. Another benefit is the pay. If you are a good car hauler working for a good car hauling company you can expect to earn anywhere from 60 to over 100k as a company driver. It never hurts to have health insurance and a 401K too! both of which I had with the last company I worked at for eight and a half years. Americans love thier cars and it doesn't look like that will change any time in the near future so the job outlook for experienced Car Haulers is pretty good. Heres a link to an article about hauling cars for a living I did and posted on my website highwayman Online. http://www.highwaymol.com/hauling-cars-for-a-living.html
There was an interesting article on the B.B.C. regarding memory loss and Nicotine. According to the article they did a study with 67 people suffering from mild cognitive impairment and pre dementia and found some promising results, although the study is to small to prove anything, it does open the door to future research using nicotine via the nicotene patch as a potential drug to help the many people that suffer from dementia and alzheimers.
According to Michelle Roberts a reporter from the B.B.C: "The latest work found that six months of treatment with nicotine patches appeared to improve how well individuals with "pre-dementia" or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) performed on tests designed to assess memory, attention and response times.
After six months of treatment, the nicotine-treated group regained 46% of normal performance for age on long-term memory, whereas the placebo group worsened by 26% over the same time period." No, I dont recomend non smokers going out and getting on Nicotine. It's expensive, highly addictive, and has a lot of proven negatives. However it's worthy of discussion. Heres the link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16467186
While driving I often daydream about adventures in far off places. One of my favorite daydreams involves living on an Island somewhere in the South Pacific. Since this is (so far) only a dream, I did the next best thing and ordered a book called. "The Sex Lives of Cannibals." Written by Maarten Troost. This book is about the day to day life of Troost and his wife while they live on Tarawa, an Island far off in the South Pacific. This book is funny. Troost turns the idea of moving to a south pacific island as a fantasy into a hillarious day to day re-cap of what it's really like living on fantasy island. Although Troost may ruin the fantasy, he'll make you laugh and keep you interested, while he does it.
If you are looking at the ingredients in shampoo and toothpaste you will invariably come across Sodium Laural Sulphate aka SLS. This chemical is a foaming agent as well as a corrosive. It is also very cheap for companys to put in thier products. It cleans by strip mining your skin. (I already have enough wrinkles thank you very much). It has also been shown to readily cross the skin barrier and is retained in the brain,liver, as well as your eyes. Not only that it has been linked to causing childrens eyes to not develop properly as well as potentially causing cataracts in adults. Heres a link from one of many websites that talk about Sodium Laurel Sulphate. http://www.healthy-communications.com/sodium_lauryl_sulfat%20steinman.htm
So needless to say I have been looking for alternative Soaps that dont carry SLS. enter Dr. Bronners Magic Soaps. Dr Bronners soap is made the old fashioned way. A method that the good Dr. brought back from Germany. Dr Bronners also uses organic oils. You can buy this excellent soap in many different flavors including Lavender, tea tree oil and almond, my favorite is Peppermint. I use it as a shower gel and also to shave with. I never get razor burn using it and I suspect this is because it has Hemp oil which is loaded with healthy fatty acids which keeps your skin protected and feeling young. You can buy Dr. Bronners at most health food stores. And some top end Grocery Stores too!! You can also find it on Amazon and have it delivered right to your door. The only down side to Dr. Bronners Soap is that the lid likes to gum up when it gets cold. I solve this problem by holding it under warm water, then unscrewing the lid and blowing out the soap plug, then replacing the lid. B  Dr Bronners Magic Soap is the best soap/shower gel that I have found. Its about as good as it gets when it comes to soap.
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